Inconceivable Winter Cold Nixes the 2022 U.S. Street Nationals

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What would you do if I told you a while back that the U.S. Street Nationals would be cancelled due to winter weather that included a freeze warning and that track temps in the sun didn’t exceed 65 degrees in spots? You’d tell me I had lost my mind. Well, that is exactly what happened.

We all know that Florida has notoriously unpredictable weather. It might be blazing hot one day, and the next day be 65 degrees with Noah’s Ark type rain. This time it seem to be a touch of everything mixed into one though. Add to the completely inconceivable weather, a rash of sick employees, and it’s the recipe for stress and overwhelming anxiety. That is exactly what happened over the weekend at Bradenton Motorsports Park.

The enthusiasm leading into the event was at an all time high. There were an expected 60 pro mods entered to make a 32 car field and fight it out for $32k. This was also to be the kickoff of the radial season, with Pro 275, LDR, X275, and Ultra all coming to Florida and getting back to actual racing. Add to that the 632 folks, Sealed engine class, along with index and you had an even blend of something for everyone.

I personally rolled into Florida on Tuesday afternoon after spending Monday at Fuel Tech. By the time I arrived though, the rain had put a halt to the testing for the day. It allowed me to spend the day with some other content creators just doing normal life stuff. All the while we are still thinking that it is going to be a great week of racing. Unfortunately for us, Mother Nature had other plans on Wednesday. Yep, we lost the entire day on Wednesday as well due to the wet stuff.

Now, we are on Thursday. One day left to test before rolling into qualifying on Friday. The intentions were to get three rounds in on Friday, a round Saturday morning, and start eliminations on Saturday afternoon. You all know how even the best laid plans go though, and this was no different. Each night during the week it seemed to get colder and colder by sunset and was shaping up to be a rough one.

Friday was shaping up to be great, and we got a lot of passes down the track on Friday. Though we knew by the end of the evening that Saturday was going to be brutal with regards to the weather. Most of us were spot on with Saturday. I’m not sure I saw that many winter clothes in Florida ever in my life. Didn’t matter what part of the world you were from, Saturday was extremely windy and that made it feel bitterly cold at times. There was no easy way to put this, but even for this guy, who grew up in Wisconsin and lived there for 38 years, the weather I experienced in Bradenton on Saturday was brutal.

By the time that we wrapped up what we safely could on Saturday it was still pretty early, but there was absolutely nothing that track prep specialists Jimmy Bradshaw and Tyler Crossnoe (who filled in for an ill Wade Rich last minute) could do to keep the track safe enough to compete on. The decision was made it call it a day and head back to the hotels.

Sunday morning I walked out of my hotel and thought to myself it wasn’t too damn bad, though that all changed when I arrived at the track. Though it was sunny, and not nearly as windy as Saturday, there was still a breeze and a damn cold track surface. As I stood by the tree talking to Victor and Tyler, in the back of my mind I kept thinking that we might be able to pull this off and still have a great event. Given, we’d only made it through half a round of Pro Mod eliminations at that point. It was 10:30 in the morning, the sun had been beating on the starting line pavement for two hours, and the surface temp was still only in the mid 60’s.

I headed upstairs to the media suite to check on the other content creators that had arrived for the day, and that’s when one of them came in and advised me that we were calling the event. I can only imagine the look of outright disappointment on my face in that moment. While I knew in my heart that it was the right decision, it just hurts your heart to actually hear it. A little while later, while I was on the phone with E3xtreme co-founder Ellen Eschenbacher, I hear over the PA system all drivers being called to the starting line.

That walk from the second story, down the stairs, around the wall, and to the starting line, was without question the longest and most disheartening walk I’ve had to make since Tyler’s OSCR race in Bowling Green a few years ago. I knew that I was walking up to listen to a man who gives his heart and soul to our sport announce that we were going to have to call off the race and send everyone home.

Once the announcement was made that the race was going to have to be cut short, it was also announced that all payouts were guaranteed payouts, so remaining competitors would be splitting the prize money equally. Mind you, we hadn’t even gotten through the first round of Pro Mod, and Victor was willing to do full payouts.

I have been to and covered hundreds and hundreds of events in my career and this one was tough. You had the keyboard track prep specialists and the keyboard racers and the keyboard track managers all online over the weekend telling everyone how it should be done, all while eating the hot pocket their mom just made them and sitting around in their underwear. Victor, Jimmy, Tyler, Bob, Dave, Randy, and everyone associated with this event from track staff, concessions, media, etc. did everything imaginable to make this event happen and Mother Nature just decided this was the weekend that it wasn’t gonna happen.

So, until next time Bradenton Motorsports Park…Snowbirds!